1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of transforming delineative patterns such as graphic characters, which method is used with a graphic pattern processing system employing vector data for processing the delineative patterns, and more particularly, to an image processing system in which contour line data, composed of vector data, of the delineative pattern is moved by discriminating the signs of the normal vector component of the contour line data so that the widths along the vertical and horizontal directions of the delineative pattern can be changed independently from each other.
2. Related Background Art
The method of processing graphic characters in the form of vector data is very advantageous in its high data compression rate and its high quality of displayed graphic patterns which have undergone one or more desired graphic pattern transformations, such as magnification, reduction and the like. However, with the conventional pattern transformation, when a character "H", as shown in FIG. 7A, for example, is subjected to proportional magnification, the resultant transformed characters are such as those shown in FIG. 7B and FIG. 7C. Thus, in case where a character is magnified or reduced in scale, the ratio of the width along the vertical direction to the width along the horizontal direction is constant and the relative width between both directions cannot be changed.